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. `@with faire @anni @ffice IMPROVEMENT .IN WASHING MACHINES.

JAMES BALLARD, OF ALMONT, `MICHIGAN.

Letters Patent No. 60,612, dated December 18, 18.66.

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TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that I, JAMES BALLARD, of Almont, in the county of Lapeer, and State of Michigan, have invented a new and improved Clothes Washing Machine; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable those skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in Whichi Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of my invention, taken .in the line :t x, fig. 2.

Figure 2, a plan or top view of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts. l

This invention relates to a new and improved clothes washing'machine, of that class in which a reciprocating corrugated rubber is used. The object of theiuvention is to obtain a simple clothes washing machine of the class speciiied, one which may be operated with facility and with a moderate expenditure of power, and which will admitof the rubber conforming or yielding to the clothes in the suds-box, however uneven or irregularly they may lie, or be moved in the latter under the movement of the rubber. The invention has further for its object the arranging of the rubber in such a manner that it will perform the double function of a rubber and presser, so that the clothes "will be acted upon in a very efficient manner.

Y A represents a suds-box of rectangular form, and supported at a proper height by legs, a. The bottom of the suds-box has slats,Z attached transversely to it to form a corrugated surface, as shown clearly in tig. 1. B represents the rubber, of rectangular form, egual in Width to the interior of the ends-box, but not equal to itin length. The' under or face side of this rubber also has slats, c, attached transversely to it, or is iluted transversely, to form a corrugated surface, as shown in fig. 1. C is a lever which has a shaft, AD, passing transversely through it, the ends of said shaft being fitted in bearings, E, attached to the sides of the suds-box.. The lower end of this lever is secured by a pivot, d,to one end-of a short bar, F, the opposite end of which is attached by a hinge, e, to the top of the rubber B; the end of the bar, F, to which the lever, C, is attached, having one end of an elastic cord or spring, D, connected to it the opposite end of D being connected to the rubber, as shown clearly in iig. 1. By this mode of connecting the lever C to the rubber, the latter, as it is moved back and forth by hand, is allowed to yield or give to the irregular o r uneven position of the clothes underneath it, and this is an important feature, as the clothes are very liable to be moved, under the action of the rubber, out of an even position. The clothes, therefore, will be acted upon in the most eiiicient manner, and in consequence of the rubber being shorter than the suds-box the clothes will be pressed between the ends of the rubber and the suds-box, and be therefore subjected to both a rubbing and pressing or pounding process. The device, it will be seen, is extremely simple, and the rubber while being moved back and forth will work either in a horizontal or inclined position, to correspond to the layer of clothes underneath it.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-,

The reciprocating rubber B, having the hand-lever connected to it through the medium of the hinged bar F, with elastic cord D, or its equivalent, attached substantially in the manner as and for the purpose herein set forth.

JAMES BALLARD.

Witnesses: J cnw RATTRAY, PETER FERGUSON. 

